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T O P I C R E V I E W

E2M Lem Man

We are having a discussion at the Columbia Memorial Space Center in Downey, Calif. about creating a national Apollo museum at the site.

The mayor would like to propose to NASA that the Apollo 1 spacecraft would be the centerpiece of the exhibit highlighting the challenges of Apollo and focusing on memorializing the crew and the work done during the recovery leading to Apollo's successes.

I would suggest referring to those previous threads for the general issues involved with the capsule itself and focus this thread on the specifics of the Downey proposal — and the general topic of establishing an Apollo museum at the site.

E2M Lem Man

Robert, that is exactly why we are looking into this now. Our discussion is because of what was begun here.

We feel that the Apollo 1 accident and Grissom, White and Chaffee's sacrifice and the work done at the Downey site by many thousands of workers are the reasons for Apollo's success.

Jay Chladek

Jim, are you SURE you guys want to do that with Apollo 1? We are talking about more than just a spacecraft here of course. There are also many people that likely feel it was North American who designed a spacecraft that killed that crew (I know, there were failings all up and down and NASA of course has its share of the blame for ultimately what happened).

While I have no doubt an honorable display with Apollo 1 could be done, there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed of course.

But hey, you know and I know sometimes all one needs is an idea. Get the ball rolling and see what happens.

SpaceKSCBlog

As with any such facility, the #1 question should be ... How will the museum be funded?

Thirty museums submitted proposals for a Shuttle orbiter. Most of them had no funding source, which is one reason why they didn't win.

It's easy for a politician to say "Let's build a museum," but unless there's a reliable and stable funding source then it's just words.

APG85

Speaking of Apollo 1, what is the current condition of the Command Module? Is it completely disassembled (a gutted shell and all components in boxes) or was it reassembled after the fire investigation?

Does anyone have a picture of the new storage building it was relocated to a few years ago?

dtemple

The outer shell of CM 012 was cut in half roughly around 1990. The purpose was so it would fit inside a missile silo at Cape Canaveral - I believe the same one one in which the Challenger remains are located (LC 32?) - but the process of preparing it for disposal was terminated by the protests of others (families of the astronauts perhaps). The inner pressure vessel remained whole.

The spacecraft was not reassembled after the investigation and its many components are boxed. I believe even the astronauts' spacesuits are boxed, too. The service module was scrapped around 1972. Pictures can be seen here.

E2M Lem Man

Jay, I can think of no other better place. Apollo was born in Downey, designed and built there. More importantly — after the fire, it was fixed there. I am aware of the mistakes made — but after 45 years we want to tell the story of Apollo and remember the sacrifices of the crew and those who worked on the program. We want to work with NASA to make this a memorial to Project Apollo.

Fra Mauro

Any display of Apollo 1 cannot be done without consulting the families first. If not, there will be problems, like with the proposed move to the missile silo in the early '90s. I don't think NASA wants to display one of its' more tragic episodes. You also have to ask: why not display parts of the Challenger and Columbia remains?